“Firearm murder suicides are unfortunately very common in our country, and we certainly see a number of them in Tennessee each year,” said Beth Joslin Roth, Safe Tennessee policy director. “But six in a four week period is alarming. Research shows that the presence of a gun increases the risk of homicide for women and is a risk factor for suicide. Sadly, often domestic violence shootings and firearm suicides intersect in the form of murder suicides.”

“Each incident is different, each circumstance is different,” said Roth. “All share one common denominator: a gun in the hand of an angry man, a man who almost always has displayed warning signs and red flags in their recent past.”

Gun violence restraining orders (GVROs), also known as “red flag bills” would allow law enforcement officers or immediate families members to petition a judge to temporarily remove firearms from the possession of a person they believe is an imminent risk to themselves or others. Even with the high number of domestic violence shootings and firearm suicides in our state, Tennessee legislators refused to give the GVRO bill filed by Senator Lee Harris a hearing in 2018.

May 28, 2018 – Murfreesboro
Sean Ganey, 29, shot his wife, Cassidy Ganey; her stepmother, Shelly Lorenz-Adair; and her father, Kenny Adair, and then himself. A handgun was found at the scene beside the bodies.Deputies had been called to the home Friday and had taken Sean Ganey to a hospital after he expressed suicidal thoughts. A child was present in the home around the time of the shooting but is safe.https://www.dnj.com/story/news/2018/05/28/four-people-found-dead-murfreesboro-home/650102002/

May 20, 2018 – Chattanooga
Chattanooga Police found 48-year-old Kimberly Williams in a parking lot, deceased from a gunshot wound.Nearby, they found Frederick Tragressor in a vehicle suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.Police determined that Tragressor shot Williams and then shot himself. Williams worked as a resident assistant where she was a caregiver to people with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s.https://wdef.com/2018/05/21/people-remember-murder-suicide-victim/

May 12, 2018 – Townsend
The deaths of a former University of Tennessee professor and his lawyer wife, who were found dead in their home Saturday, are consistent with a murder-suicide.As officers responded to a welfare check after receiving word of a person in the home with a weapon, they heard a gunshot.Kenneth Allan Jacobs, former director of the UT School of Music’s composition program and his wife, attorney Melinda Howes Jacobs, both died from fatal gunshot wounds.https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/05/14/townsend-death-jacobs-murder-suicide-blount-county/608726002/